Survey of London: Volume 27, Spitalfields and Mile End New Town

Edited by F H W Sheppard. Spitalfields is well known for the handsome silk-weavers' houses in and around Spital Square, Fournier Street and Elder Street, with their distinctive weavers' garret workshops. The greater part of this volume is devoted to a detailed account of these houses. The area's principle monument (Nicholas Hawksmoor's masterpiece, Christ Church, Spitalfields (1714-29)) is also studied in detail, and its complex building history explained, making use of the then recently discovered archives of the Commissioners for Building Fifty New Churches. In addition, the volume takes in the adjoining suburb of Mile End New Town, an area of eighteenth-century origin, largely rebuilt in the late nineteenth century, and at the time of writing undergoing extensive redevelopment for public housing. Spitalfields Market, and the well-known brewery of Truman, Hanbury, Buxton and Company, are also described.